VisualVM on new 64-bit laptop with JDK7 can't connect to JMX agent

Question

I have a Spring app that runs fine on WebLogic 10.3.x on my old Win7-32bit laptop with JDK 1.6. I can make a local connection to the app from VisualVM and view JMX properties and execute JMX methods.

I'm now setting up a new Win7-64bit laptop, with JDK 1.7 and WebLogic 12.1.2.0. The app itself works almost without change (I had to add some package overrides in the weblogic-application.xml).

However, when I installed VisualVM (1.3.7) and installed all of the relevant plugins, I can connect to the process, but when I try to open the MBeans tab, it says:

Data not available because JMX connection to the JMX agent could not be established.

There's nothing useful in the VisualVM log. I don't have quick access to the old laptop right now. Is there perhaps a WebLogic command-line option I need in order to allow JMX connections?

Answer 1

I've resolved this. It simply requires setting the "com.sun.management.jmxremote" system property on the JVMs I want to target. Curiously, I found an Oracle docs page that talks about this property, and it says it's not necessary to set this anymore. My experience conflicts with that.